The Value of Home Economics
When I was in high school, home economics was a throw away class where you learned to cook or sew. It was for the girls who didn’t plan on going to college and planned on becoming housewives. The true meaning of home economics was lost on us college-bound women who disdained the process and instead took computer programming or another course we considered “useful”. If home economics had been touted (or even run) as a personal finance class as the name actually suggested, perhaps there would have been more interest amongst us teens who were career minded even at our young age.
Home economics is how we make our household run within a certain budget. It’s a sub-section of personal finance largely ignored and disdained by many urban-minded young people. It’s considered something only a soccer mom or housewife would do. This is wrong. We all need a household budget, whether we’re married with children or single and running out to night clubs each week.
With gas running over $3.00/gallon in some areas of the country, saving money has become more and more important this summer. With the addition of a second car into our household, it’s become imperative we save as much as possible in order to make ends meet.
This is where home economics came barreling into our lives. About two months ago, I started having the Sunday Boston Globe delivered to my home. I don’t read the news in this paper as I read all the articles online at my leisure over the week. Instead, I clip coupons. To receive the Sunday paper only each week (the one with all the coupons), I currently spend $7.00 per month (the regular price is $14.00). Each week, by clipping coupons, I save anywhere from $3.00 to $8.00. One week, I managed to save $20.00 on groceries simply by clipping coupons.
Another way I’m saving money is by preparing a week of menu items in advance based on the days of the week my boyfriend will be home in the evening. With his new job this has increased from one or two days a week to four or five days a week (a distinct improvement on our lives). By creating the menu in advance, I can manage a weekly shopping list.
I keep my coupons in a small folder, sorted by expiration date. Each week, as I’m preparing my shopping list, I throw out the expired coupons and go through the pile for coupons matching items I’ll need off my list. Each item on the list I have a coupon for, I put a star next to so I can compare prices on the shelf with the coupon in my mind when I get to the item.
Just because I’ve pulled a coupon on an item, doesn’t mean the coupon will be used. Sometimes the store doesn’t carry the item or another brand (or no-brand) version of the item is cheaper, even with the coupon in consideration. Having the coupons keeps my list more organized, however.
For nights my boyfriend is not at home, or for our days off, we either eat leftovers or we have frozen meals available. When our freezer is low on these meals, we add them to our shopping list. Our lunch items for work are also on this list. Between the list and the coupons, I’ve gotten our grocery budget down to $100 per week for the two of us. I usually spend less, but a good rule of thumb is to over-budget so you don’t over-spend.
After writing my list this week, and clipping coupons, I have pre-grocery shopping savings of $9.35. There is a potential of me not using about $2.00 of that value. This week’s paper cost $1.75. My total savings in coupons alone is going to be at least $5.00. This doesn’t include any ‘instant savings’ I’ll receive by using my store card.
Other than smart grocery shopping, we’ve also limited our dining out to once a month. We used to go out once a week. In addition, I’ve pre-purchased movie tickets for the summer at AAA for $7.00 each (sold in multiples of four). This saves us each $3.00 per movie at our local theatre. I’ve also seen these 4-packs at the local CostCo. Many of the chain restaurants include coupons in the Sunday paper. In order to save on our dinner out before the movie, we’ll often go to one of these restaurants.
Since I’ve started doing more precise home economics, I’ve saved us approximately $300.00 per month. That’s no chump change and that’s even with the addition of the second car and the increase in gas prices. This just goes to prove, home economics isn’t for soccer moms and housewives. It’s for everyone.
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June 6th, 2006 at 9:32 am
What do you think was the biggest change you made that contributed to that $300 savings a month?
June 6th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
Not eating out as much.
$50 once a week = ~ $200/mo right there.
So, by going out only once a month, it’s about $150 in savings. The increase in grocery spending is offset with coupons and by sticking to our list and not browsing the aisles so much.
June 8th, 2006 at 9:26 am
That makes sense.
Whenever we’re looking to save money, eating out is the first thing that gets cut. We saved a lot of money when one of the hubby’s coworkers left for another job and the hubby stopped eating out almost every day for lunch. It’s amazing how fast all of that adds up.
June 8th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Carls learning the extreme difference working next to a grocery store vs. getting lunch at the mall food court is making on his lunch budget. He’ll now buy something like pre-cooked bbq meat ($6) and bulkie rolls ($2) for a week of lunches as opposed to spending $6 per day in the food court.
June 9th, 2006 at 11:12 am
Hi Liz and Elana! Just thought you’d like to know that we’re having a “credit haiku” contest today on CreditBloggers.com. I’d love to see what you guys come up with -
http://www.creditbloggers.com/2006/06/funny_money_fri_1.html
June 9th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Hey there, Emily. OK. I gave it a try but my haiku skills will never make it onto my resume.
Elana, $8 a week is way impressive for lunch vs. the $30 he was spending. That’s adds up to a lot of money a month. Tell him I am impressed with his diligence.